learning about how bilingualism sharpens the mind. Her good news:
in Toronto, was awarded a $100,000 Killam Prize last year for her
A. You know, I didn’t start trying to find out whether bilingualism was
shortage in Canada for Ph.D.’s. The only position I found was with a
types of questions that naturally led to the bilingualism research. The way
research works is, it takes you down a road. You then follow that road.
A. As we did our research, you could see there was a big difference in the
and bilingual children knew, pretty much, the same amount of language.
But on one question, there was a difference. We asked all the children
silly” and they’d stall. But the bilingual children would say, in their own
words, “It’s silly, but it’s grammatically correct.” The bilinguals, we found,
A. Yes. There’s a system in your brain, the executive control system. It’s
while ignoring distractions. It’s what makes it possible for you to hold two
different things in your mind at one time and switch between them.
If you have two languages and you use them regularly, the way the brain’s
networks work is that every time you speak, both languages pop up and
the executive control system has to sort through everything and attend to
what’s relevant in the moment. Therefore the bilinguals use that system
more, and it’s that regular use that makes that system more efficient.
Q. One would think bilingualism might help with multitasking — does it?
cellphones. We then measured how much worse their driving got. Now,
everybody’s driving got worse. But the bilinguals, their driving didn’t drop
work?
brain lit up when our subjects performed different tasks. Now, with the
new technologies, we can see how all the brain structures work in accord
In terms of monolinguals and bilinguals, the big thing that we have found
a problem, and they use X systems, but when bilinguals solve the same
problem, they use others. One of the things we’ve seen is that on certain
kinds of even nonverbal tests, bilingual people are faster. Why? Well, when
because of bilingualism.
A. I’m asked about this all the time. People e-mail me and say, “I’m getting
There are two major reasons people should pass their heritage language
brain exercise.